THE   ANDROS   DOUBLE   SEAL.
 

CHAPTER X
 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OE   SIR   EDMUND   ANDROS

1674-1682
 

'f^l^l HE new regime in New-York, nnder Edmnnd Andros, her
$^l^^ first Grovernor after the retrocession by the Dutch, dates
^■j^§ from the year 1674. Andros was a public officer of ability;
^^Av53| ^j^^^ while pure in life and of spotless integrity, has been
known in history for an imperious and despotic disposition. He was
born in London, England, on the 6th of December, 1637, and married
in 1671 Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Craven and a sister of Sir
William Craven of Appletrenick in Yorkshire, and of Combe Abbey
in Warwickshire. His family, for many years, had held a distin¬
guished position in the Island of Gruernsey. His father was an officer
in the royal household; and the son, as a reward for his family's
fidelity to the house of Stuart, was made a gentleman-in-ordinary to
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, and had been brought up at
Court, in which he had become a favorite of the king, Charles II., and
his brother, the Duke of York. At an early age he chose the profes¬
sion of a soldier, in which capacity he served in the regiment of
foot sent to America in 1666, and in 1672 was commander of the
forces in Barbadoes. The same year he was made a major in the
dragoon regiment of Prince Eupert,—the .first regiment in the Eng¬
lish army to be armed with the bayonet,— and two years later, on the
death of his father, he became Seigneur of the Fiefs of Sausmarez
and succeeded him in the office of Bailiff of Guernsey, the reversion of
which had been granted him by his Majesty in his father's lifetime.